REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -

While it’s cliché, the old adage that the “only constant is change” has never been more true than in the past five years within the recovery industry.

Several breakthrough technologies are transforming the industry from a fragmented, local market-centric business into a more consolidated model, with competition nationwide. This change has forced many recovery service providers to revamp their businesses to stay ahead of the competition.

Among the changes making an impact is the introduction of online software designed for the recovery industry, license plate recognition (LPR) technology, online remarketing and having an online presence — all have made conducting business more efficient and potentially more profitable.

With an ever-changing industry, it’s more important than ever to embrace the latest and greatest systems and services that will help recovery businesses survive and grow.

Online Management Software

The development of the online management software for the recovery industry has vastly improved communications between recovery agents and lenders. This breakthrough technology helps facilitate the flow of repossession from lending groups to service providers with two-way e-commerce network and communication platform.

The online management software creates a large mass of lenders and recovery service providers that benefits both parties — lenders have more choices and services providers have greater access to lenders, creating an improved matching system.

There are also benefits of overall reduced costs, reduced transfer costs, and standardized systems. It uses the latest technology to ensure accuracy, precision, and efficiency, and is a secure network that establishes protection for all parties involved

Among the leaders in this field are RDN, iRepo and PRIOS. RDN alone has more than 2,800 recovery and repossession related service providers, including over 94 percent of the four largest recovery industry trade groups and 12 of the top 25 auto lenders in the United States.

Many of the other recent technological advancements of the recovery industry rely on the Internet to function,

For example, because all of the software information is available online, account details are available 24/7, timely notifications are received and any involved client is able to monitor the sale. Financial and account summaries are downloadable and every party receives tracking information.

License Plate Recognition Technology

LPR camera technology was first introduced to the collateral recovery industry in April 2008. LPR cameras will automatically recognize more than 3,000 license plates per hour, drastically faster than any human could alone, which are automatically compared to databases of vehicles up for repossession.

If a “hit” is made, and an alarms sounds within a few seconds on the agent’s laptop. Every plate recognition is logged in a central computer so if a vehicle is involved in an offense, all prior sightings of the vehicle with time and GPS coordinates can be tracked.

There are also safety benefits. Besides reducing the amount of driving which reduces the number of tired drives, the technology also alerts whether a vehicle is related to a felony or has been reported stolen, which enables the driver to take caution.

Although the cameras are slightly pricey, it’s a solid investment for ongoing results.

Online Remarketing

Online remarketing provides a user-friendly, cost and time efficient solution for selling repossessed vehicles from any location.

Online remarketing allows recovery companies to expand their service offerings by becoming a one stop shop from recovery to remarketing. By remarketing repossessed collateral from their storage locations, they can offer value added services such as key cutting and light reconditioning.

Lenders also benefit by eliminating the cost of transporting vehicles to physical auctions, faster vehicle sales, lesser depreciation and a more cost-effective means of wholesaling recovered vehicles.

Online remarketing also provides greater control and transparency throughout the entire process by enabling direct sales online.

Before online remarketing, vehicles were typically repossessed by a recovery agent and then physically sent to an auction to wait for a sale. There were costs and risks associated with transporting the vehicles.

Now the agents and lenders benefit from a remarketing process that reduces costs, provides national exposure for their vehicles and allows for clean up, title processing, complete transportation options and analytics services at the click of a button.

Online Presence

In the past few years, the Internet has changed the way people do business. It not only allows your company to be found online, but it allows you to conduct business online.

The Internet has become a natural extension of how businesses operate. In this day and age, people can find almost anything online. The Internet allows businesses to connect to target potential customers in new ways every day, through search engine optimization to social networking to discussion forums.
Google is the No. 1 rated search site, and Facebook is the largest login provider (it’s the top choice for social sign-in).

Online marketing as a whole has cut costs drastically compared to traditional marketing methods.  Instead of having to physically mail a marketing piece or advertise generally in a periodical, businesses can target a specific niche for their services — whether regionally or by using demographic data.  

If you, as a business owner, do not see the benefit of the ease and efficiency that the Internet brings, then think about your customers — they are starting to expect them as standard.

Establishing an online presence used to be expensive and often did not make business sense for small companies. However, marketing on the Internet is no longer a choice. It has almost become a necessity in today’s marketplace.

Through adapting your business and adopting new technology, you will become more competitive and able to weather the downturns when they come.

Change can often be difficult, overwhelming and scary and is almost always met with resistance, but these industry changers have helped improve the recovery industry and how it serves the lending community.

John Lilly said, “Our only security is our ability to change.”

Zach Hallowell serves as business line director at OPENLANE. He will be a panelist at the upcoming Re3 Conference. Visit www.autoremarketing.com/re3 for more information about the event, to register or to make hotel reservations.